Jon Stewart Catches Up on IRS Scandal Developments

Receive the latest entertainment-news updates in your inbox

“Oh no,” Stewart said. “The IRS facing scrutiny. People getting all up in their business, checking their books."

Updated at 7:09 AM EST on Tuesday, Jun 4, 2013

After a weeklong break, “The Daily Show” was back Monday night, and Jon Stewart was in good spirits.

First order of business was catching up on the latest IRS scandals.

“Oh no,” Stewart said. “The IRS facing scrutiny. People getting all up in their business, checking their books — just because one small area of their business raised a couple of red flags. Now everybody at the IRS has to stop their lives and prove their innocence.”

That little speech was followed by palms together, a la Mr. Burns of "The Simpsons," and the catchphrase, “Excellent.”

So here are the latest sources of outrage and/or speculation:

1.) Former head of the IRS Douglas Shulman visited the White House 157 times.

Stewart wasn’t impressed. After all, how many talks would it to take for the president to tell the head of the IRS to take down his political enemies? Well, two at most. The first meeting would go like this: “Hey, why don’t you target my political enemies.” The second, a la Tony Soprano, like this: “Did you take care of that thing?”

But what was the head of the IRS really doing at the White House on 157 separate occasions? CNN political contributor Stephanie Cutter said that she was at many of those meetings, and they were primarily about healthcare.

Moving on. The bigger scandal of the two had to do with money.

2.) There’s the rhythm-deficient “Cupid Dance” video made by IRS employees, which cost taxpayers $1,600. Okay, but that’s nothing! What about $60,000 for videos spoofing “Gilligan’s Island” and “Star Trek”? Still, in the grand scheme of government-waste, that’s not too shocking. Then how about this: In three years, the IRS spent about $49 million on at least 220 employee conferences.

That’s a lot of money. Sounds like the IRS might need some help sorting out its finances, Stewart noted.